Cheers to a new me in 2017! Smarter, happier at work & more generous with family time.

2017 will be a magical year simply because it has number 7 in its sequence. That in itself is a comforting omen. Seven is a lucky number, period.

I have always enjoyed living fast. Change in living environment, looks and activities has been a stimulating factor. This, I find, was less of a carpe diem living la vida loca and more of a subconscious trial and error at solving the riddle of self-discovery. As a result, by the age of 30, I have lived in 5 countries, learned fluent Japanese, aimed at getting an amateur boxer license, completed an internship at Capitol Hill, passed out (multiple times) after alcohol intoxication (got bored with that by the age of 21), ran full mountain marathon in Vietnam, been on a Playboy TV show (as an audience), graduated from Oxford, UCLA, Waseda and SOAS, written a couple of hip-hop songs (band name URZT 'Urodzone Zeby Tworzyć' translaton: 'Born to Create'), sang 'Memory' from Cats at my wedding (listen here), moved into a two-storey penthouse in Singapore, got depressed, became a certified wedding planner, driven from L.A. to Vegas at 135 mph, co-created a new media art project Touchy, found husband online, commented on Euro Cup football game on a Japanese TV show and sold thousands of plastic shoes online in APAC. As my mother likes to say, whatever I experience can never be taken away from me. I do have many good stories to tell.

2016 was a relatively slow year. I did get married twice in 2 different countries but conventionally to the same person. I have directed all my attention to my husband and to building a loving and long-lasting partnership with him. The 'love and marriage' project is ongoing and I do intend to devote a lot of time and effort to it in 2017 and beyond.

As mentioned above, 2017 will be auspicious thanks to numerology. I firmly believe in and hence consciously opt for a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, little should be left to numerology, astrology, fate and other external, uncontrollable factors doubtfully underpinning the course of our lives. I owe myself a long-overdue conscious action and some guts at improving the following aspects of my life:

Having more control over my time

Leveraging my talents in a meaningful and sustainable way

The goals seem vague enough to not qualify as achievable new year resolutions. Fair point. The trajectory to achieving them has yet to dawn on me. But I do not want to let this difficulty incapacitate me from taking small steps. Importantly, I am able to recognise that my priorities have changed. I am no longer as fixed at impressing others by committing oddities, fighting for job titles and counting zeros in my paycheques. I am a bit quirky and I want this aspect of my personality to come through in whatever I do, but only to the extent that lets me be me. I am also aware that reducing the importance of money is a privilege of those who already possesses it. The priorities have changed, the paradigm has shifted. It has not been burnt and replaced by a completely new model.

With this balanced approach to Project 2017, here's a list of some changes that I intend to undertake in order to achieve, in a long term, my two goals mentioned above. The list is non-exhaustive, non-static and non-rigid. I will be updating it from time to time to monitor the progress and modify when necessary.